


Frost Bitten Fire

by LimpBlotter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Not too much, its gonna be short and sweet and probably some steam, that will be for something else, widomauk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-15 17:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14794610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LimpBlotter/pseuds/LimpBlotter
Summary: Caleb and Molly are forced to work together once a series of unforeseen events separate them from the group. They'll break, bond and find themselves bandaging up bruises from their past.





	1. Fallen Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Intro Chapter! Posted both here and Tumblr (but the rest of the fic will be posted here)

“Remember when I said I’ve never b-been this far N-North?” Mollymauk held the flaps of his robes close to his chest as a few shivers broke through his lithe frame. He held up the back of the pack as they trekked through snow up to their knees, against winds that flapped against their faces. 

Of course not by choice, The Mighty Nein found themselves chasing their usual pursuits. Some were chasing the truth, some fortune, some reputation and fame, the rest? They were following a higher calling for answers. What all their paths had in common were they found kindred spirits ready to lay down lives for each other. A family filled not of trust but a mutual care for the other. It was strange but functional (somewhat) nonetheless. 

Their path of their differing desires led them so far up North along the broken mountain ridge in search of any kind of shelter. They knew the travel would not be easy but no one prepared them for the snow storm they found themselves in for the past few nights. Even their horses found it hard to maneuver through the piling and slightly inclining snow path. 

Jester manned the carriage as Fjord, Yasha, Beau and Molly on horses flanked the side of the cart where Nott and Caleb were among their goods, huddling for warmth. 

Molly strode his horse (W.C.) closer to Yasha who was mounted on Loaf. The large, pale woman who usually looked cool and stony even looked worn against the constant whipping of sharp, icy winds against her matted two tone hair. Her eyes sympathetically turned towards Molly, showing the only warmth in the 5 mile radius for her friend. “Ya, I can’t imagine Gustav would want to travel this far…” 

“No one in their bloody mind would want to travel this far North, unless they were actually looking for their demise.” Molly shot back, just as the group’s blue haired tiefling turned with her cheery smile (looking less phased by the cold) from her driver’s seat on the kart. 

“Oh Molly! Itz not so bad! I thought you liked snow.” 

“Yes I liked it for the first day” Molly grumbled, it was his first time seeing snow and it had been so magical, this cold white powdered that blanketed the world but now? Now he hated it, he hated the unforgiving cold of the powdered and longed for the warmth of sunnier regions. “I’d rather be back in Zadash at this rate or the Menagerie Coast. Hell! Even a fuckin’ jail would be warmer than this.”

“Well, like, you know, next time” Jester nodded. 

“Next time—“ 

“Guys shut the fuck up” Beau stopped immediately and turned her horse to face the sides of the path.  
It was then the group noticed they had gone from walking along an open plain of slightly inclining snow to a narrower path. The walls along the snow driven path were piled high with snow and tall, naked pine. The snow slowly collected more and more along the sides until a few hundred feet up a natural tunnel formed with hardened snow. “Looks like we’re gonna be cramped for a while…” She hopped off the horse and gently tapped against the cart. “Caleb, we’re gonna need eyes.” 

Slowly from within the cart, the mess of red, slightly oiled hair poked out and nodded. “I’ve been working on a form for Frumpkin that would suit this travel.” He parted the cart’s folded sides and slowly a white snow rabbit hopped out and twitched. 

“OH MY GOD, LUMPY IS SO CUTE!” Jester squealed before Fjord gently shook his head. 

“Jester, remember what we said about keeping our voices down along the snow?” 

“Oh right.” She softened her squeal. “ohmygawdCaleb” 

Caleb stared for a bit, “Right.” He looked to Nott who was holding his arm. “Ready?” 

“Always, I’ve got your back.” Nott smiled, looking up and finding Molly was staring at their direction. “He’s going to be blind” 

“I know” He quickly turned his head away from the pair. “I’ll keep watch back here.” 

Slowly Frumpkin’s new rabbit form plopped onto the deep snow. With quick jumps the rabbit made itself into the snow tunnel. Caleb saw through his eyes and watched as the narrow snow tunnel eventually and abruptly opened up. The opening came so soon and it was a narrower path that before, no more than perhaps 5-7 feet wide along what looked like a drop as they curled around the steepest part of the incline as the path wrapped around what looked like a cliff’s edge. 

“Oh godz” Caleb breathed, “the tunnel opens to a very precarious path, its very narrow cliff side…the cart might pass but we’ll have to travel in a single file line.”  
Fjord and Beau exchanged looks. “Alright, then let’s line up going into this tunnel. I’ll bring up the front, Beau?” 

“I’ll stick up here, Molly, Yasha you two alright bringing up the rear?” Beau glanced back.

“I’ve always preferred bringing up rears anyway, you?” 

“Likewise.” Yasha nodded once. 

“I’ll stay here with Caleb” Nott muttered, keeping both goblin hands on Caleb’s arm as he kept his sight with Frumpkin. 

Jester held the reigns tight, “and I’ll keep her’ steady!” 

“Look at that” Beau nodded, “We actually came up with a plan before we ended up in trouble.” 

The half orc leader snickered a bit, “Back were I’m from, we’d call that some good ol’ character development.”

The cheerful jest died down as they entered the snow tunnel. For moment, they were shielded from the winds that held the majority of the cold. They walked slow, careful not to make too much noise as their new surroundings were very sensitive to any shift in sound and movement. 

The interior of the tunnel was perfectly sculpted and white, packed tightly and purposefully with snow. Soon the original “natural” looking exterior seemed more…hand made than anything. A quality that Molly began to pick up on quickly as his childlike curious wonder of the snow tunnel turned to immediate…distrust. 

“The walls seem very smooth.” Molly mentioned out loud. “Too smooth, one may add.”

“Where you an interior decorator in your other life?” Nott rolled her eyes, “so what its snow, of course its smooth, its soft and wet…and terrible. It’s not even nice to live in.” 

“That’s not what I meant” he sighed, then turned to Yasha who was always more open to listen. “This doesn’t seem like something that would naturally happen with snowfall and this high up?” 

The green rogue shrugged her goblin shoulders until Caleb began speaking again. “I’m getting uh, very bad feeling about dis, its…its almost like this tunnel was made by someone.” 

“Or something” Molly whispered, almost smug that the brains of their group seemed to agree with him without even being able to hear Molly’s first statement.  
Yasha looked over between Molly, Nott and a blind/deaf Caleb “well…maybe travelers coming up this way made it? I suppose there has to be some path that’s been taken by others.”

“I mean that’s entirely not unlikely… I hope that’s what this is.” Her purple tiefling companion added.  
After a few more minutes of traveling through the perfectly, snow packed tunnel Fjord called out from the front. “Alright, stay close to the wall, we’re getting to the ledge.” 

As the line broke from the tunnel they were met with even higher wind speeds, seeming as though the tunnel had taken them even higher up the ridge. The path was very much a ledge, with only a few feet between a snow wall and a drop that was practically vertical. With the amount of snow falling and shifting through the harsher winds, it was impossible to really detect how far the drop was.

None of the Mighty Nein were prepared to find out how far it would go. 

So strategically they began the walking along the narrowing path. Taking the deepest of care as each step ever so gently displaced a little snow from the wall adjacent to from the plunging death fall only inches from each of them. Even Jester’s mood shifted as her strong grasp kept the cart from losing its place along the densely packed snow path. The wind was no friend to them, as high altitude winds shook more than just the cart from side to side. 

A few of the horses would pause and buck against the dangerous climb that went against all their instincts to pursue, forcing the group to stop periodically to reclaim control of their animals. 

About a mile into this path, cold and silent the Nein began to wonder if there would ever be a town or at the very least some over to shield them from the freezing chill. Even Jester began to succumb to the climate. 

She began to sniffle. 

Her nose began to twitch. “Ah, ah!”

Quickly, Fjord’s index finger plugged her nose horizontally as the entire team held their breath. They waited patiently until her chest slowly deflated and no sound left her. “Thank you, you’re so kind to me Oska— I mean Fjord.”

“Don’t you worry yer’pretty lil head, Jester” he smiled watching a dark blue flush appear along Jester’ rounded cheeks, “I’ve got you.”

The nauseating moment passed and no more than a few seconds after there was a deep, guttural sound that echoed and carried itself with the wind. “Look alive guys..” Beau slowly reached behind herself and grabbed her staff, slowly going into a stilled stance. “Something else might get us all if we’re not careful.”

One by one everyone began to ready and hold their ground. Nott, reluctantly, moved from Caleb’s side and pulled her crossbow out, slowly moving to the top of the cart with Jester. Weapons drawn from all around, no one made a sound…

“Hello? Where is Nott, what’s going on?” Caleb poked his head out from the cart, pulling his senses out from Frumpkin and back to his body. He looked around and saw Molly and Yasha, weapons drawn and readied by their sides. Then his eyes went directly to the ledge where his stomach began to crawl back against his spine. 

Molly immediately met Caleb’s sickening gaze and offered him a coy smile, hiding every ounce of cold and stress he was accumulating within him. “Glad you can join us, we’re all just stopped enjoying the view and mildly terrified for whatever might jump out at us.”

“R-right” Caleb slowly retracted inward.

“Seems like whatever it was, left?” Yasha slowly began to sheath her blade and gave the all white land one more look around. 

Before anyone of them could agree, from the top of the snow wall, a mass of white fur burst through. Showering snow all over the group and shaking loose tons of more snow, as it rained down on them. The beast came from the side, between Jester and Beau knocking the cart off the ledge as a massive polar bear stood, feral on the small path.  
With quickened reflexes both Nott and Jester managed to leap off the cart and on to the ledge, landing within range of the beast but safely away from a free fall downward. The cart with all their belongings did not fair the same, nor did the wizard stuck within it. “CALEB” Nott immediately shrieked as the cart began to tumble out. 

Caleb’s body was tossed out, and would have fell along with it if it wasn’t for a hand that had grabbed him by the scruff of his cloak. He glanced up and found the disgruntled face of Mollymauk, one hand grabbing him by the cloak the other, holding on to his blade which he had deeply embedded along the side of the ledge. “Quick thinking, Mollymauk…” Caleb muttered out forcing back his stress induced vomit. 

“Don’t compliment me yet I still have to pull us up.” He grunted, shifting his grip to see how much he could pull. The moment he shifted his weight, his blade began to sink down, losing its leverage in the embedded snow wall. “Crap” Molly hissed between sharpened teeth. 

A pale arm stretched out as far as she could, “Molly give me your hand” Yasha extended herself out. For a brief moment Molly thought perhaps they could catch a break when he spotted the faint outline of a massive clawed paw behind Yasha’s head. “Watch it!” He exclaimed with just enough time for her to roll out of the way. 

The sheer impact of this strike shook the ground, loosening the snow that kept Molly’s blade embedded. He felt his body lose its tension as they began to free fall. The last thing either of them remembered as falling for several seconds against howling, cold winds and the look of panic shared between human and tiefling eyes, then impact. 

The world went dark. The battle over head was muted as they were separated from their friends, tossed along the snowy embankment, then again fell more, the miles it took for them to get around the snowy cliff side lost as they fell before reaching flat snow fallen ground. 

This was all too familiar. 

The blackened world around him, the cold around his limbs. He felt the pressure of several feet of substance pressing against his body. Every part of him began to panic, he was back in the shallow grave again. His body began to struggle helplessly against the icy coffin that encased him. Molly wanted to open his mouth and scream for help but nothing came out. His face was pressed by the snow. 

Fear began to claim him, began to paralyze him from every inch of him. With eyes clamped tight, fighting the tears that threatened to break through he could feel the earth above him shift, he could hear a muffled voice speaking as slowly light began to filter through the parts of the earth that were being uncovered off him. 

As memory serves, he recalled breaking through the grave himself, burrowing out to into the night and seeing the moon with his new sight. A part of him waited to see the moon, instead as his vision was unfrosted by the layers of snow from impact he could see the outline of a scruffy man, panting as he repeated his name over and over again.  
Caleb’s hands were raw and red as he bare handedly shoveled Molly out of the snow, calling for him until he showed some sorts of consciousness. 

“Where…where are we?” Mollymauk croaked then immediately groaned as the fear began to subside, conscious joined with pain reminded him of the height they had just fallen from. He waited as Caleb stared up at what looked like an endless wall of snow, following the trail of where their bodies were flung about a few feet within each other. The graying sky with flecks of wildly thrown about snow obscured his vision, he could hear nor see anything. Not the ledge, not their friends, not the beast they had left their comrades with. 

“I think…” Caleb felt his eyes widen with sheer horror as even his ability to reach Frumpkin was lost, from the sheer distance of their descent into this icy abyss bottom. “Lost…we’re lost.”


	2. The tip of the iceberg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly and Caleb find themselves alone and lost. While fighting off the elements they come at a crossroads which bears the true reality, that there isn’t much they see eye to eye with.

Lost was more than just being away from the road appointed. Lost was more than misdirection and a range of navigational issues. Lost was a state of being. Lost was a sensation of empty realization that something had gone wrong in the worse way. In the unpredictable way, in the uncertainty if this state would go away or not.

It was the sickening bile that rose through Caleb’s nervous body as Mollymauk repeated after him, “lost?” Caleb was at a loss for words, for direction as both men stared at the cliff side they had just tumbled down and managed to survive. Nothing but a steep wall of unsettling, unstable snow met with winds so fast that was impossible to spot where they had come from through the thick, dense snow flurries that weaved a blanket over their range of sight. Like a chilled, heavy mist, they could barely make out the rest of the cliffs form nor could hear the battle they left their fellow team members at.

“That’s...one hell of a climb.” The obvious exasperation from the lithe man beside him, only added to the sickening feeling in Caleb’s gut.

“ _Ja_ , we are not climbing that.” Caleb immediately looked over at Mollymauk who was still eyeing over the cliff side.

“Agreed, but we can’t stay here either.” Mollymauk stared at either side, “--”

Caleb immediately interjected, “We could, we stay put it would be easier for them to find us when they do…”

“That could take hours, days perhaps. We’re out in the open against the snow down here. We stay here and we’ll be popsicles tomorrow.” Molly shook his head, he was immediately repulsed by the idea of staying put, “plus I’m not a fan of sticking to a place, we keep moving.”

However, the idea of traveling with just Mollymauk beside him was unsettling. It had been a long time since Caleb traveled without Nott. He had just learned to grow comfortable traveling in their group and now? Even with the presence of Molly he felt...tossed into this situation alone...Silence fell over him as his slowly began to retract into himself. Against the bitter chill his hands grasping the tops of his arms defensively.

Mollymauk had turned his body around staring around in all directions. He took in the flat snow draped land around him, only being able to see a few feet in front of his face before the snow began to obscure everything in a white overlay. “Which direction were we traveling up there on the cliff?” He spoke, his eyes slowly going to Caleb waiting for a response. “Caleb?”

“Caleb?”

Caleb felt a chill seep through him, as he slowly closed his eyes in the moment. As they proceeded with Molly’s foolish blame, Caleb’s mind began to close out the outside world for the moment, gathering his thoughts within himself; until he felt the pressure of hands on his body. Warning alarms erupted through his brain as the unprecedented touch was met with “ _Vas_ ” He yelped instinctively in his native tongue, his mind having fled the moment into the shelter of its own.

“Which way is Northeast where we stand?” The purple tiefling slowly pulled his hand back, seeing the way Caleb nearly lept out of his grasp made him feel...as though he hurt him. He held his wrist with his other hand, rubbing it soothingly.

The wizard’s middle aged eyes went to the sky. He waited for a second, his mind slowly adjusting to the direction where they fallen, using their position as a reference and then slowly turned to the left of them. “That way” he jutted his chin subtly in the direction. “I surely hope you don’t intend to walk aimlessly in that direction, do you?

“Well I surely don’t intend in standing here.” He could already see Caleb sigh, the cloud of air escaping his lips exasperatedly. “The team will keep moving, the best we can do is move to, meet up with them when they make it around the cliff pass. If we keep a good pace we might even catch up to them.”

“You are completely relying on chance and luck that by some way, the group has defeated the beast we left them with and decides to continue on. By that logical they could try and scale down the cliff to find us.” Caleb stared at Molly then back at the cliff. Both of those chances were so slim but one involved staying put, in what looked like a relatively safe spot at the moment and the other was walking into the unknown with Molly.

If it had been Nott, well they wouldn’t be having this argument, they would be staying put. Caleb did not like the idea of straying so far from the path that seemed to lead back to familiarity but...he couldn’t do this alone. He knew that at least with combined skills, he had a fighting chance of lasting the night with another person…

“Trust me on this” Molly threw him a jovial smile and turned his head to their new pathless direction.

Caleb’s eyes slowly down casted to the snow by his feet, trust him? He exhaled slowly and pushed forth behind Molly, taking his lead almost reluctantly. Deep down in his gut he could feel the coils of anxiety twist around at the talk of trusting. Did he trust Molly? No. Did he believe that this would work? No. But Caleb was in no mood to fight, he’d play along.

He wanted to please the group and at the moment the group consisted of just Mollymauk, so he’d walk along this plan with Molly, keeping his eyes on the cliff for any signs of a path that led back up it.

The duo walked against shin deep snow. They traveled against gusts that blew sharp flakes of snow that burned their exposed skin against their faces. They’d be lucky if their movement got them a mile or two in the next hour or so, all the while they hugged the base of the steep cliff.

Something about the blank, flat, snow covered land they traveled made Caleb feel even more uneasy. There was an irony in this terrain, they should be able to see further with no peaks of hills or mountains but the snowfall made it impossible to see too far. He felt as though they were two targets moving along a blank canvas, easy pickings for whatever was lurking just out of their perceptive reach.

After about two hours of painfully slow and cold traveling, Mollymauk paused in their tracks prematurely. Caleb who had been walking with his head down, cloak hood pulled as far forward as it would allow shielding his face from the onslaught of constant snowfall walked right into Molly’s back. “ _Pfui_!” He huffed looking up at the back of Molly’s head.

“ _Vas_?” He muttered almost...curtly.

“I thought I heard something…” His red, pupil-less eyes narrowed forward, he squinted, struggling to look through the rippling wall of rapidly falling snow flurries.

The human beside him began to worriedly mutter something in Zemnian before whispering to Mollymauk back in Common. “Listen...this would be a good time to turn back right now. Whatever is out there could have us outnumbered. We tried going this way and it's clearly more dangerous.”

“You want to double back and waste more time?” He broke his gaze from his search among the snow and turned to Caleb beside him. He noticed his body language, hunched; half turned away from him and tensed. He looked ready to run back to the direction they had come from. Almost like a cornered animal, he seemed ready to flee in a moment’s notice.

Caleb struggled to reason with both himself and his ongoing fear, “we’ve already wasted time. The others could be looking for us back there.”  
“Or they could be moving forward, you don’t know that and frankly--” Before the tiefling could finish there was a deep, bestial roar that ripped through the air. Both men stopped speaking and turned slowly back to the direction Molly had been struggling to see past and a bulbous shadow began to run towards them.

The shadow grew in size as form became clearer to them. A mass about ten feet tall, covered in matted fur off white, looking to be rippled with muscular limbs and dark black eyes. A creature that they both had remembered seeing last began a quick dash forward towards them. A snow bear, stood on before them, slowly moving to its hind legs imposing its large height against the pair.

“Oh _scheiße_ ” Caleb shrank back behind Molly, he watched as one of Molly’s hands moved to his glass blades. With great grace and sleight of hand, he twisted his blade inward, so the sharpened end was facing Molly’s side, and dug a deep slash against his torso, drawing a few drops of blood.

Caleb had never been this close to Mollymauk. He never got to see what exactly happened when he activated his blades. The burning curiosity within his scholarly blue eyes took this moment, probably not the best, to study Molly’s power intently. The crimson blood dripped as normal blood should in the few seconds of being a fresh wound. Then as soon as the thick plasma touched the edge blade, the blood began to glow, almost evaporating into his weapon and coating it in the radiant energy. “Alright so we’re doing this…” Caleb muttered slowly reaching into his pocket for his chromatic orb.

“What are the chances it doesn’t want to fight us?” his partner responded coolly, Caleb didn’t tear his eyes away from the creature though he could hear Molly’s smile as he spoke.

“Unlikely” Caleb responded with a small, anxious gulp pushing down the saliva and panic induced vomit. And with that the snow bear began to approach them, hunched forward finding the purple tiefling as its first target of prey.

Its large paw, lined with sharp almost gnarled claws came down towards Molly over his head. The bear pushed his slash downward with enough force to floor him into the snow. In fast response Molly spun his blades in his hand, pointing them upward towards the snow bear and raised them both, crossing them over him, catching the paw before impact. He grunted as his feet sank further into the snow, his knees buckling as the weight of the beast pushing down on him was nearly too much.

“A little--” Molly grunted again, his back careening back for leverage. “A little help would be nice!” The horned man turned towards his teammate, as Caleb filled his view he saw him was waving his hand over his diamond.

This dirt covered fingers moved with small sparks of arcane energy delicately weaving between him and his focus. In a way, it was just as graceful and filled with finesse as Molly moved his blades. There was intention and fluidity in every movement, his eyes narrowed on the beast and just as he focused a spell on it, he felt human error set in. A tremor of cold, shaking his fingers, the delicate weaving of arcane power splintered for only half a second sending the spell just barely off target.

Caleb watched as the spell flew off to the distance and disappeared along the sprinkling of constant snowfall. “ _Verdammt_ ” he hissed at himself aggravated as Molly struggled with the beast.

The bear snarled, having looked up at Caleb as he missed the attack, then focused on the prize that was locked arms with him. The beast pushed down on Molly’s frame until the strength was out of the tieflings range and he fell back. His blades still crossed keeping the claws just centimeters away from his face but now, having the crushing pressure of a massive animal pushing his now horizontal frame into the snow.

Mollymauk winced against the pressure; his eyes caught the faintest crack along the base of one of his blades and felt the fear slowly begin to kick in. He glared at the beast, opening his mouth with what little air he had left in his trapped lungs as he was pushed back first into the ground. “I’ll make a fucking coat out of you” he spoke in his devil’s tongue, the deep infernal snarls of vicious mockery.

For the moment the beast reeled its head back a little, pulling it's paw off Molly. In that moment the tiefling drew in a deep but pained breath as the pressure left both his chest cavity and his sword. He turned his head back to Caleb, still flattened on his back and prone with a wide look of second winded horror.

In that moment, Caleb’s usual frightened pose was dismantled. In those fear barring eyes he saw his teammate, his friend, someone he knew helpless and Caleb was there. There was something in the look of horror that moved Caleb forward as he bent over to help Molly up to his feet, coming within closer range of the snow bear.

The bear shook its head from the pain, and then erupted into a deep and terrible roar in response to Caleb. It went down again, to attack with its clawed paw, this time at Caleb, whose side was slightly turned towards the bear as his hands were pulling Molly’s from the snow. Just as the paw came down, it was met with aversion once more, as Molly began to bleed.

His hand twitching and out stretched as the bear’s eyes blackened and blood began to pool from the corners. Blinded it's paw arched too far to the left, slamming into the snow close by Caleb, making a deep imprint into the otherwise flawless snowy ground.

“I’ve had enough of you…” Caleb moved his hand over his diamond once more. The beast was far too close for comfort. “Two of us can be very loud.” He pulled back his hand just as the bear began to stagger back on its hind legs, pawing at its blinded eyes. With an open palm towards the beast, his hand began to glow along with his orb and there was a tremble through the space. The air between him and the bear rippled, repelling snow outward as a thunder blast.

The sheer power of the blast, forced the bear back several feet. As Caleb stood, holding Molly instinctively as they both rose to their feet. “We should probably run for it while we still have the chance.” Molly’s clawed nails dug into Caleb’s coat, gripping him for both stability and...Security.

Caleb stared intently at the cliff side, positioned to their side a few trickles of snow began to rain down. There was a moment of what sounded like birds fleeing and the snaps of far off trees; followed by a deep, rumble of earth. “Actually running would be a good idea, right now.” He grabbed Molly and turned away from the cliff. Hand on sleeve they fled away from the cliff, their marker of direction, leaving the bear alone.

After they were several thirty feet away from the bear, Molly turned his head and watched as a wave of snow collapsed on top of the beast. He watched as this ongoing wave of snow began to gather and billow forward, consuming the flattened land in its wake. “Did you intend that to happen!?” He smiled, hysterically amused by everything that happened now that the lived to see the result.

The human huffed, making no remarks, “The bear is gone isn’t he?” He finally mentioned as ran, stumbling through the flat lands finding a few dead trees dotted here and there.

As they ran frantically, Molly picking up more momentum than Caleb at this point began to take the lead. Using their awkward link of hand to sleeve, Mollymauk dragged his human wizard behind him now. Caleb felt his footing grow looser and eventually caught a divot hidden in the snow.

He couldn’t stop himself. He couldn’t slow Molly down even more so he pushed on, feeling the cold gust of the avalanche behind them slowly creep on them. With one hard pull from Molly and an opposing pull from gravity he felt his foot slip into a divot hidden in the snow. His body began to twist one way and his legs another, as a result his ankle was caught in a position unnatural enough to make him yelp in pain. He immediately ripped his grasp free from Molly and fell to his ass, leg extended as he hissed in pain.

Immediately the tiefling stopped and doubled back for Caleb, kneeling down without a second thought. “Alley-oop!” He lifted Caleb and began running as the man bounced in Molly’s hold.

Of course their movement was slowed; Caleb looked over Molly’s shoulder and could see the wall of snow barreling towards them. He looked up at Molly, his lavender skin damp from both sweat and snowflakes falling on his exposed flesh. There was no one they were going to out run this. There was no way they were going to beat this wave unless…

“Mage Armor…” Caleb muttered, his hand glowing as he placed it awkwardly, almost patting, Molly’s chest. Before they were in cased in snow, the last thing Caleb saw was the glow over Molly’s flushed skin and being flung forward by the snow. Then...for the second time in one damned day, their world went black.

Being no stranger to darkness Caleb didn’t stir, though he was well aware he had the full brunt force of a man’s body over him, as the snow warped around Molly’s body that was coated and enhanced by the mage armor. A perfect Mollymauk Tealeaf sized shield as Caleb’s eyes came too, he could see how the snow parted away from Molly, as though he was an impenetrable rock. “You almost died coming back for me.” Caleb grunted sorely, his body was in mild pain but there was a much sharper sensation originating from his ankle.

“Well you almost died helping me up, so I suppose we’re even, hm~” Molly sat up looking around. “Point is we survived...and I doubt that bear made it through all that…”

“I certainly do not wish to stick around and find out,” Caleb made an attempt to stand and began to limp into his steps as he realized his ankle was not broken but there was a definite strain to his moment. “We can’t continue to travel like this and now we are further from the cliff from where we began…” Unlike Molly who was marveling over their survival, Caleb began adding up the possibilities that were leading to their demise.

“We’re a little worse for wear but we can’t stay put, we’ll camp for the night and--”

“And then what, Mollymauk? Walk aimlessly even slower than before? Towards what? Going where? All we have is a faint direction where we might be able to go with no real way of knowing. Can you guarantee we’re going to find the others this way?” Caleb pointed his finger at Molly.

“Well I don’t see your plan being any better than mind, if we stay put we might as well just sit back and die in the snow.” Molly glared a bit as Caleb unleashed a heavy scoff.

“We nearly died in the snow twice now. I went along with your idea, and now we are further away from where it was going. Believe it's time we try my idea.” Caleb pressed his hands to his chest, emphasizing the point that his plan was to be executed next.

Molly shook his head a bit, biting his lip as though he was in mild disbelief. “No, no can you honestly say you went along with my idea? You were against my idea from the moment I mentioned it. You went along with me because you didn’t want to be alone but you didn’t go along with my plan.” He shot back with the same accusatory point of a finger at Caleb. “Be honest with me, did you trust me for a second while we were doing this? Did you really give this plan a fair shot?”

Those human blue eyes felt a heavy weight on them. “ _Nein_.” He muttered under his breath, though the silence of the world around him made no different. The answer carried between them and rang through Molly. “It was going to fail and I …”

“You didn’t even try to give it a go, not a even a trust shot in the dark?” Molly had his hands on his hips as he paced away from Caleb, who shifted his weight off his injured ankle to his alright one nervously. “Just for the sake of humor in the midst of all his bullshittery, did you even trust me? At all through all this? Before?”  
The wind between them gusted then...for a brief moment died. There was nothing but slow falling snow and silence as Caleb began to take limped steps towards Molly. The tiefling stood there, red eyes honed on Caleb watching as the human kept his head down. The closer he got the more the answer became evident with each step he took, head hung low. His arms hugged to his sides as he quite visible retracted inward.

“Let’s make a camp, ja?”

Was he simply that untrustworthy? Had Molly proven nothing to Caleb? To the team or was there still so much Caleb refused to see...whatever it was Molly waited a few moments before following behind Caleb. He felt an iceberg of emotions breech, on the surface, they worked well, the moved well but just sitting below was a massive amount of untouched distrust and misdirection leading them astray.

No words were shared between them as Molly began collecting what he could from several dying trees. The Northward skies carried darkness much faster than they were used too and were soon face with curling close to a lamely lit fire.

Though Caleb was use to silence, this wasn’t the same kind of silence. This was a silence that hovered delicately over danger like thin ice. Where any breath or word could shatter the atmosphere around them, as they began to float further and further away from being found and closer towards the blank, abyss of being lost. He watched as Molly silently poked at the fire, feeding it dead bark from time to time. “You shouldn’t have done that.” Caleb croaked before the numbing chill began to take his mind to slumber before exhaustion. “Earlier…”

Mollymauk without looking up from the flame responded with little to no warmth or personality to his voice. “I shouldn’t have what, Caleb?” The sound of what it lacked force Caleb’s mind to only concur what it had been theorizing.

“You shouldn’t have saved me, it would have been better off if I was alone…” There would be no hesitation to his plans; there wouldn’t be pause or redirection. If Caleb was alone, then the consequences would have been simple, he either died or survived. With Molly, he had to keep in mind that everything he did, every plan he wanted to push was to keep someone else alive with him.

Something he was neither good at or had any history of being able to do well.

“You know Caleb, if you continue down this path; you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life.” Mollymauk answered honestly, “and I’m not entirely sure you believe that’s ‘ _ **better off**_ ’ for you.” He finally looked up only to find Caleb pulled his cloak over him, rolled to his side with his back to the fire and Molly. He squeezed his eyes shut, fearing all the worst. His abilities, his trails were not enough to not only please but protect. The worthlessness rose in him and suddenly he felt as though Molly striving to act kindly towards Caleb was going to ultimately be his undoing…Caleb was not worth dying for…in his own eyes, Caleb was barely worth living for.

“ _Nein_ , it's better for everyone else.”


End file.
